1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to degradation of amino acids and, more particularly, to a chlorine dioxide compound for degrading amino acids.
2. Description of Related Art
There are common molecular patterns and principles that underlie the diverse expressions of life. Organisms as different as the bacterium escherichia coli and humans have many common features at the molecular level. They use the same building blocks to construct macromolecules. The flow of genetic information from deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) to ribonucleic acid (RNA) to protein is essentially the same in both species. Both use adenosine triphosphate (ATP) as a currency of energy.
All life is a combination of many molecules of different structural formations. A molecule is defined as a combination of two or more atoms. These may be similar atoms such as the combination of two oxygen atoms to make molecular oxygen, O.sub.2. Most molecules consist of two different elements and structural relationships. All atoms carry electrical charges; some are positive and some are negative. The attraction between the positive and the negative electrical forces binds these into stable molecules which make life possible.
Molecules described in a textbook are shown as two-dimensional structural formulae. Actually, these are three-dimensional structures with many convolutions, wherein different portions of these molecules and their electrical charges or valence bonds are exposed to other molecular or atomic forces. The strength of these electrical forces, or valence bonds, are the basis for degrees of stability of all living structures.
The complex molecules of amino acids are structures made up of varying atomic elements, primarily carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, sulfur and oxygen. The essential amino acids in humans are those that must be obtained from food whereas the balance can be endogenously created. The strength of the electromotive forces of shared valence bonds is directly related to the stability of a given compound. Molecular oxygen will easily break the valence bonds around sulfur atoms or double bonds between other atoms.
A chemical compound such as L. cysteine which contains sulfur, has a valence bond on a terminal arm with one valence bond to a terminal carbon and another valence bond to a terminal hydrogen. It also has a double bond between a terminal carbon and a molecule of oxygen. These are the weak points of cysteine, making it more easily destroyed by oxidative consumption than some of the other amino acids. The high electromotive forces of oxygen can attack these weaker valence areas, breaking up the arms and oxidatively consuming the molecule. Lynch, using 0.1% chlorine dioxide, has documented the oxidative consumption of cysteine and methionine into pyruvate. (Lynch et al., infra)